A Villain for Christmas (The Holyoake Christmas Series, Book 2)

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Several points he'd just made - read, excitedly heralded - caught her attention; and the most striking was the following.

"What do you mean you were hoping something might come out of me talking to Rhys?" Billie asked in bewilderment. "What could you have possibly expected?"

He shrugged.

"You k-kept saying you were a librarian, but there's no library. And everything in Fleckney hinges on Rhys' opinion."

"Well, not everything," Billie grumbled. "Even if we talk about the independent funds and any local initiatives, there are also the Oakbies and the Fitzroys and the Bjornssons."

"I've known K-klaus for years, since b-before his accident. The B-bjornsson Fund is involved in our project, but their efforts are mostly directed at the C-comprehensive. And we n-need Rhys' influence, not his m-money."

"You make it sound like the Holyoakes are some sort of mafia," Billie drew out. "Why is Rhys all of a sudden a Vito Carleone?"

He chuckled. "No, cara, that's n-not what 'Ndrangheta are like."

Billie wasn't sure whether the 'ndrungetuh' was a synonym of mafia, or whether she was missing some important point here; but he was already rummaging in one of the drawers. Billie decided to move onto the next topic.

"Why Monte Cristo, though?"

He laughed quietly. "W-works both for Alessandro and me."

A man with the past full of trauma and abuse, returning after many years, unrecognisable, wealthy, and powerful? Billie couldn't say he was wrong. She didn't know the details of Fergusson's past, but when she'd been little, there had been rumours that the Fergussons were among very few families in Fleckney that could be delicately described as the very inspiration that Bondarenko had been looking for and couldn't find among the other Fleckney residents.

It surely fit Dair to a tee.

"I n-need to set it in motion before I l-leave after Christmas," he said distractedly, shuffling through some papers.

Billie's heart sank. So, he wasn't 'staying' per se, was he? On the other hand, it did look like she'd convinced Bondarenko to film in Fleckney. Did it mean he wasn't exactly 'leaving' either? Was it OK to ask?

Billie truly couldn't understand how she was supposed to behave in this situation. She blamed her inexperience in the matters of the heart and other organs. Someone who'd done it before would know how to navigate the sort of an ambiguous situation she found herself in. Surely, all her data from Radcliffe, Maugham, and Amis was no help here. They never wrote about the intricacies of passion and confusion with Italian flavouring.

Oh wait.

Billie's romantically uneducated brain performed a convoluted 'cognitive acrobatic act,' which resulted in her uttering a question that could seem somewhat unrelated to their previous discussion - but could potentially be the key to most of the puzzles tormenting Billie.

"How many dates are you hoping to squeeze in before Christmas?"

Dair's hands stopped their excavations; and he slowly lifted his eyes at her.

Billie had a sudden realisation, one of a rather unpleasant nature; then she doubted it; and immediately decided to confirm slash explicitise. Billie preferred her data valid, recent, and unambivalent.

"How many dates with me, that is," she decisively clarified. "I just realised that you've never said that we were–" She was painfully unaware of the modern vernacular. Wasn't there a term of sorts? 'Exclusive,' or something of that ilk. Or is this one outdated already? "If you were monogamous," Billie tried again. "Planning to be monogamous. Meaning, to be in a monogamous relationship. With me."